THE BODY BEING THE GENUINE ONENESS

One of the most positive items in the New Testament revelation is the genuine oneness of the Body. This genuine oneness is just the processed Triune God, who mingles Himself with us, the redeemed and transformed Christians. The genuine oneness of the Body is nothing less than the Triune God, who is not only triune but also processed and consummated. This consummated, processed Triune God mingles Himself with His chosen people in their humanity, and this mingling is the genuine oneness.

The genuine oneness is not merely a matter of our meeting together. The worldly people meet together, and in their gatherings they have their kind of oneness. However, that is not our oneness. Our oneness is the oneness of the organic Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is a mingling of the Triune God with His redeemed and transformed people. Because it is such a mingling, the Body itself is the oneness. The Three of the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—are three divine factors of this oneness, and these three divine factors are mingled with one human factor, consummating in the Body. This Body is the genuine oneness.

THE ONENESS OF THE LORD’SASPIRATION AND PRAYER

First, this oneness was something in the Lord’s desire. This desire of the Lord’s became His aspiration, and this aspiration was expressed in the prayer offered by the Lord in John 17 (vv. 2, 6, 11, 14-24). The subject of the Lord’s prayer in John 17 is oneness. The Lord uttered this prayer out of the divine aspiration. At that time this oneness was not yet a reality; however, a model of this oneness—the oneness among the Three of the divine Trinity—was there. The Father and the Son are one (vv. 11, 21), and this oneness implies or includes the Spirit. In John 17 the Lord used the plural pronouns We (v. 11) and Us (v. 21) to signify the Triune God. The Triune God is one, and that oneness is a model of the oneness of the Body of Christ. Because the oneness of the Body has the oneness among the Three of the Trinity as a model, John 17 tells us that this oneness is altogether wrapped up with the Triune God (v. 21). The oneness of the Body of Christ is just the enlarged oneness of the divine Trinity. The model was there at the time the Lord prayed, but the enlargement was still to come. This enlarged oneness came on the day of Pentecost. Through the outpouring of the Spirit, the Body of Christ was produced (1 Cor. 12:13). That Body is the solid oneness.

(Elders' Training, Book 10: The Eldership and the God-Ordained Way (2), Chapter 3, by Witness Lee)

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Living Stream Ministry publishes the works of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, providing the authoritative and definitive collections of treasures from these two servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. The writings of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee focus on the enjoyment of the divine life, which all the believers possess, and on the building up of the church, the goal of God's work with man in this age.